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Thursday, December 22, 2011

The New Range

"We have met soldiers, wanderers, police officers, and even the occasional alien. Today, is the first time we have an actual cowboy in our studio. Welcome to 104.3 Mr. Steven Light."
"I'm as amazed as you are Thomas. I though this whole ting about a zone wide radio was joke. People can fake recordings, and the call number is all wrong - 104.3 isn't an AM frequency and W is a call letter for East of the Mississippi."
"Smart man. I know its misleading, but well, its a tribute to a radio station I used to listen to. Furthermore, just calling it "Hobbes on the Radio" would be self-serving and unprofessional. As the old broken window theory goes - if people see order, they act more orderly, and when they see transgressions they excuse their own more frequently."
"You some kind of doctor before The Event?"
"Yes actually. OB, Pre- and post- natal care. How about you?"
"Physical Therapist - a lot of it centered around nature and animal therapy with horses and dogs. I would've much liked to help all the people hurt by The Event. But that wouldn't have been too likely to put food on the family's table. Catching some wild longhorns, or roping up wild bison - that helped the family and bunches of others, more than one on one sessions."
"Wonderful to meet a philanthropist."
"Thank you"
"Its got to be a lot of hard work though."
"'Pends on the animal really. Emu aren't native to the area and need a lot of watching to keep alive. Bison are large enough to take care of themselves really. Actually, with the exception of birds, everything is too {bleep] independent...?"
"Professionalism"
"That was another reason I didn't believe this was real - you really bother with that? Well. anyhow, the short version is, we're dealing with wild stock here. None of it has had the stringiness or ill temper bread out of it.Domestic cattle is pretty much gone. Yeah, the rumors about some sort of conspiracy of cow reanimates are d... really persistent. Simpler explanation is that you can't have packed to the gills factory farms without nano-vac and antibiotics to stop a burning pandemic in a cow tinderbox. No people, no computers - and very quickly - no cows.
"Well, the flip side is - we have a goodly bit of attrition in our herds from natural causes, and are hard pressed to do much about disease besides quarantine or culling. Another big problem is the unnatural causes. For the record - this group of aliens doesn't seem to be big on abductions and mutilating cattle. But there are humans who will. Some are just raiders out to steal a moving food supply. Others might well be our competition trying to get a leg up on us. So long as there are two dollars to go around, someone is going to try and get both of 'em."
"So, how has ranching changed?"
"It hasn't - that would be the problem."
"Seems like a pattern these days. Only the things you want to change stay constant."
"Amen brother. We don't have radio tags, we don't have barbed wire in most places - its pre-civil war life really. Of all things, its rope that proves to be the biggest hurdle. I'm not sure is Sisal grows in the country - and most people are probably using the land for food crops and those who aren't are too busy to braid anyway."
"Another problem of our age. Everybody things about water, food, and bullets. No one considers the worn out gears, sprockets and bearings that aren't being replaced."
"To add to that Mr. Hobbes - I practiced what I preached about joint and bone health. I was in pretty good shape for The Event. But I'm certainly feeling it. I'm worried we might lapse into some sort of able bodied only society."
"Fighting reanimates isn't much of a desk job, is it?"
"How do you get away with running a studio and interviewing people in bars?"
"The music is all pre-recorded, so if I'm not actually hosting a show - it runs independently like your bison, and I'm weeding in the hot house. Deigo and I take turns driving the old jeep to local towns. I help with medicine, and he is genius with machines and irrigation."
"Where does the name DeZufingia come from anyway - the only other person I've heard of with a name like that..."
"I assure you he has no ties to that organization. Of course, that is off topic, so lets take a break and get our questions back in order."

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I have a degree in English, a minor in creative writing, and knowledge of technical editing. I am also a forum mod, and contributor to, 1km1kt.net
Direct questions or comments to Flanker39 (at) GMail.com
I've been writing games for several years now, and this is one that I hope to publish eventually.